Yielding fruit in due season

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 15:1-8.
I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.
He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.
You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.
Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.
I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.
Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned.
If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.
By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.


Commentary of the day : Blessed Charles de Foucauld
Yielding fruit in due season

Yielding fruit in due season

«Happy the man who... meditates on the Law day and night. He is like a tree planted near running water, that yields its fruit in due season» (Ps 1,1-3). O my God, you tell me how happy I shall be, happy with a true happiness, happy on the last day... and that, wretched though I be, I am a palm tree planted near running waters, waters running with your divine will, your divine love and grace... and that I shall yield my fruit in due season. Thus you deign to comfort me. It seems to me that I am without fruit, without any good works, and I say to myself: I was converted eleven years ago and what have I done? What comparison is there between the works accomplished by the saints and my own? I see myself with hands completely empty.

But you deign to comfort me; you tell me: «You will bear fruit in your season»... What season is this? The season that comes to all of us is the hour of judgement. And you promise me that, if I persevere with good will and in the struggle, however small I see myself to be, I shall yield fruit at the final hour.